Larry Cox - Coalition for Orchid Species

Meets every third Monday of the month
November 2014
The COALITION
for ORCHID SPECIES
at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens
10901 Old Cutler Road
Coral Gables, Florida
www.cosspecies.com
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Dear COS Members,
Our Holiday party is fast approaching, December 15th at Fairchild Gardens in the Garden Room,
so mark your calendars. At our November meeting we will have sign up sheets for you to indicate if you are joining us, if you are bringing a guest, what dish you are bringing and how many
meetings you have attended this year.
If you bring a dish to pass (serving 8 to 10 people) you will get in free. Attending without a dish
to pass will cost $10, if you bring a guest the cost for them is also $10.
There will be a Chinese raffle with 5 different species of orchids to win. We will also be raffling
off the center pieces. You will be getting a blooming size orchid to take home. You will be
called up to get your orchid by the number of meetings you have attended.
To make this event a big success we need you to volunteer to help. We will need people to
help set up the room, work in the kitchen, help serving dinner, and cleaning up after the party.
Starting in January we will be moving our meetings to the Corbin Building. Be on the look out
for more information in next month’s newsletter.
Larry Cox
Paphiopedilums for South Florida
Larry Cox acquired his first orchid, a cattleya, almost
forty years ago. His second was a paphiopedilum, Paph.
Maudiae ‘Magnificum.’ The cattleya is long gone, but he
still has a piece of the paph. When he began with paphs,
he commonly heard, “You can’t grow those in South Florida,” but the first one lived and bloomed, and the paphiopedilum collection continued to grow. In the mid 1980’s most
of the other orchids were sold or given away, all for the love
of paphs. In 1989 he moved from his South Miami residence to a more spacious property in the farming district of
southern Miami-Dade County where he built his dream
greenhouse of 3000 square feet. He has suffered setbacks,
such as hurricane Andrew in 1992, but with perseverance
and with the discovery of new paph species ,and the consequent new hybrids, Larry’s love of paphiopedilums has
been renewed over and over again. In 1983 Larry won his
first AOS award for Paph. Maudiae coloratum ‘Elektra’
AM/AOS. Since then his orchids have earned forty-six
AOS awards, including four FCC’s.
Six years ago, Larry retired from thirty-seven years as a
teacher, the last fifteen teaching Advanced Placement high
school English . He now spends his time reading, traveling,
maintaining his property and, of course, growing
paphs. Larry has experimented with other orchid genera
and has found success with lycastes, phragmipediums, and
pescatoreas. He has even rediscovered the wonder of cattleyas, particularly species.
Dear Members and Guests,
One of the ways our society raises money to fund all the
activities of the club is with the raffle. We use the money
to help put food on our table, help to buy the Christmas
plants for every member, help pay for the room, provide
plants for our displays at the major orchid festivals, fund
the symposium and help provide for bus trips.
Please think of all the wonderful activities our club helps
to provide and do not pass up our raffle table. Your donation helps Besides the orchid you may win, your donation helps to keep our club alive.
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
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Average high: 81.2
Average low: 67.5
Average mean: 74.4
Average rainfall: 3.43"
In November we can no longer afford to be dominated by the illusion, so easy here
at the northern edge of the tropics, that summer will never end. Although Indian Summer
persists for the whole winter in South Florida, November is the month to prepare our
plants for those short sharp blasts of cold which are inevitably coming as each successive
cold front pushes the overall temperature a little lower and a little lower. Each day is shorter too. The loss of daylight savings time should awake us to the fact that there are less
hours of sunlight to save our plants from the chill of the night. Many genera are already anticipating this sea change and have completed their growths for the season. Some like Catasetum, Cycnoches, Calanthe and the nobile dendrobiums are even beginning to shed
their foliage in preparation for the cool, dry season. While the Himalayan Dendrobium species of the nobile and Callista types, calanthes, cymbidiums and an few others, actually relish temperatures down to near freezing, and most cattleyas and Oncidium alliance species
and hybrids are not bothered by temperatures in the mid-thirties, the majority of the genera which we grow, vandas, evergreen dendrobiums, Phalaenopsis and others, benefit from
being protected from the cold. Now, while the first breathes of cool air remind us that
more and stronger cold is in the offing, is the time to start thinking about protecting our
plants.
In nature nearly all the tender tropical epiphytic orchids native to South Florida are
found nestled in the bosom of deep hammocks where they are well protected from the
wind. This observation leads us to think of protecting our orchids from the north and
northwest winds. Creating or utilizing already existing wind breaks to the north and west of
our orchids will limit the ability of the wind to steal the warmth out of our plants. The critical factor is not the low temperature that the air reaches but rather the temperature to
which the plant tissue is chilled and for how long. This is why limiting the movement of cold
air over our plants is essential. In still air, plant tissue (mostly water but with some dissolved salts) retains heat for a long time and is aided by the plants' metabolism. The very
goings on of life generate heat, therefor considerable exposure to still air is needed to chill
a plant to the temperature of the surrounding environment. Not so if wind enters the pic-
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
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ture. Wind can quickly rob the plant's surfaces of heat, chilling the plants tissue deeper and
deeper. When the plant's temperature tolerance is reached, at best growth ceases or worse
yet damage ensues. Slowing the cooling process and limiting the hours of exposure to suboptimal temperature is the best gift we can give our plants for the holidays.
Protecting our tender plants from exposure to wind must be our primary concern in
preparing them for winter. Buildings, walls and even thick hedges can be very effective
windbreaks slowing or stopping chill air. Choose places in your garden that offer this sort of
protection to your orchid plants wherever possible. The geography of Florida plays into the
equation as well. Because the Florida peninsular juts decidedly to the Southeast (Naples is
due south of Jacksonville), protection from the Northwest wind is even more crucial than
protection from the North wind on the east coast of Florida. Northwest winds are blowing
out of the cold heart of the landmass while true North winds have in most locales usually
blown over more warm water and less cold land. Regardless of the degree of north, safeguarding our collections from the wind is critical to their healthy maintenance. Not until
the air circulating clockwise around the cold high pressure system shifts to the Northeast to
blow over the warm Gulfstream can we relax our guard.
Orchids that are grown in shade houses, in patios or pool enclosures can be protected by installing plastic film on the north and west walls of the structure. This can be
attached with staples or other devices that allow the plastic to be furled in warm weather
and only lowered for those few nights when it is needed. Easiest to come by (Home Depot,
or any hardware store) and cheapest, is 6mil clear polyethylene (don't use 4mil; it rarely
lasts the winter being exposed to Florida's bright ultraviolet light). One hundred feet by ten
costs about $20. Stored in a dark place, this stock will last the average grower several years
and be a very small investment that will yield greatly improved orchids. Handled with care
in furling and unfurling, 6 mil plastic usually will get the grower through the winter. If unobtrusive, it may be simply left in place till March. White polypropylene, similar to nursery
ground cloth, is used by many nurseries for winterizing. More expensive than polyethylene,
it is very durable and will last many more years. Some growers have it cut to size, taped and
grommeted for easy up and down installation and storing. Universal Supply (1-800-4323009) has it. Given the dimensions and enough lead time they can customize it for you.
Getting our growing area ready for winter is one half of the equation. We must also
get the plants themselves ready. Healthy, well-nourished plants withstand cold better as do
plants that are harder and not too lushly in growth. Because both light and temperature
are lower in November and most orchids have slowed their growth, they need less fertilizer. In cooler weather ammoniacal nitrogen is less available to our plants because it needs
the assistance of bacterial action to ease its absorption by the plants. Nitrate nitrogen is
more desirable therefore in cooler weather, because it is more quickly and readily ab-
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
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sorbed by the orchids. Check the label on your fertilizer and try to choose one with a higher
ration of nitrate nitrogen to ammoniacal nitrogen for winter use. The very best source for nitrate nitrogen is potassium nitrate (KNO3). It has the formula 13-0-44. The lower level of the
desirable nitrate form of nitrogen is well suited to the continuing but diminished nutritional
needs of our orchids in cool weather. The level of potassium is thought to contribute to the
'hardening' of the plants. Try to obtain the soluble or 'Spray' grade. If only Prills (small beads
like tapioca) are available they will need to be dissolved with boiling water, a tedious task.
Potassium nitrate is superlative also because it contains no phosphorus which, in combination with our hard, alkaline water interferes with the plants' absorption of trace elements. Trace element nutrition is especially important to maintain healthy orchids in cool
weather: above all, magnesium, the 'major' minor element. The reddening of orchid foliage
which is usually attributed to cold is in fact the symptom of magnesium and potassium deficiency. Cold is only the efficient cause of this reddening; the material cause is lack of magnesium. Epsom salts at 1tbs. per gal plus potassium nitrate at the same rate will quickly bring
back the green. This regimen can be alternated with a general trace element mixture (follow
the package rate) plus potassium nitrate. Indeed, following the recommendations of the
Michigan State University study published in the July 2003 issue of Orchids, symptoms of
magnesium or potassium deficiency might be a warning that we should have been following
something closer to this "winter" fertilizer regimen all year. We now recommend alternating
applications of 1TBS each of Epsom salts and potassium nitrate with a balance fertilizer such
as 20-20-20 or 18-18-18 year round not just in the Fall. Best of all is a 15-5-15 with additional
calcium and magnesium. peters markets one as Excel.
The Epsom salts are as near as your medicine cabinet. The potassium nitrate is more
difficult to find but a trip to the nearest Farm supply store is worth the effort. You'll save a
bundle on fertilizer and have plenty of potassium nitrate left over to grow the biggest bunch
of bananas in the neighborhood.
If you have the energy, November is also a great time for starting to pot those sympodial orchids (cattleyas, oncidiums, et al) that have finished blooming. You'll have a leg up on
the Spring potting and will glow with virtue in expectation of the rewards of the Holidays. Be
especially careful at this season that the newly transplanted orchids are well secured in their
containers. It may be many weeks till they have broken growth and can anchor themselves
with their own roots. If the plants are allowed any wiggle room the newly emerging roots
will be chaffed off, sending the plant into a slow and difficult to reverse decline.
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November
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Q.
Volck Oil Spray
Is Ortho's Volck Oil Spray safe to use on my orchids? I have white scale on several of my cattleyas and nothing I have used seems to solve the problem. The label states that this product
is not to be used on maidenhair ferns, red maples, Japanese maples or nonwoody plants.
Since the cattleyas are certainly nonwoody, could a weak solution be applied safely?. —
Marie B. Lambert
A.
I do not have any direct experience with this product on orchids, but it is my feeling that
since it is an older product, it may not be too safe for sensitive plants. It can cause phototoxicity so if you do use it, make sure it is during the
coolest part of the day. Really, the only thing that
has ever proven successful on the white boisduval
scale has been Cygon (dimethoate). It is not labeled
for orchids so we cannot recommend its use. One
control for boisduval that I have used is a mixture of
Safers Insecticidal soap and Sunspray horticultural
oil at full strength. It takes several applications, and
it
is definitely a control rather than eradication, but it
seemed to succeed for me. Boisudval is very hard to
get rid of, so this will take some persevering on your
part. — Ned Nash
From AOS.org
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
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What is an Orchid Species?
by Sue Bottom, [email protected]
The first time I was asked the question “what is a species?”, I mumbled something incomprehensible.
You may intuitively know what a species is, but putting a definition next to the word is easier said than
done. A traditional definition of species is a population of similar individuals that interbreed but are reproductively isolated from other populations.
Geographical Isolation. A population of orchids can be reproductively isolated if it is separated from other
populations by land or water masses. A simple case of too great
a distance between populations can prevent them from interbreeding.
Ecological Isolation. A species of orchids can be reproductively isolated from others if it grows in different habitats within a given geographical area, such as those growing in shade or sun, low or high in the tree
canopy, etc. or if it has different pollinators.
Seasonal Isolation. The season of bloom can be an important distinction between species because it is one
of the ways in which a population can be reproductively isolated. If one species blooms in the spring and
the other in fall, they don’t have an opportunity to interbreed.
Genetic Incompatibility. Orchids of different species within the same genus can interbreed easily and
many genera within a given orchid subtribe can produce viable seed when they cross pollinate. But if the
genetic differences are too great, two orchid populations growing in the same habitat with the same blooming season cannot interbreed and remain two distinct populations.
Taxonomists make distinctions between different species based on a host of things they
look at, including the floral structure, particularly reproductive structures, the plant’s morphology, growing
and flowering habits, and sometimes even DNA analysis. Often there are minor variations within a species,
such as flower color, size, etc. that are not extreme enough to be given subspecies designation so they are
considered to be varieties of a species. The wide ranging Australian species Dendrobium speciosum is considered to be a single species despite it having nine separate varieties with different blooming periods, ecological niches, flower color, etc. The many prized color forms of Laelia purpurata are a good example of
natural variation than can occur within a species.
Hybridization between species does occur in nature when there is an overlap in the geographical location
and flowering period of species that can crossbreed and produce
viable seeds and sometimes fertile offspring.
There are areas in Brazil where the habitats of
Laelia purpurata (lowland coastal rainforests),
Cattleya intermedia (coastal areas) and
Cattleya leopoldii (syn. tigrina, lowland coastal
swamps) overlap. Within these overlapping areas, naturally occurring hybrids are found, including Cattleya x elegans (C. tigrina x C. pur-
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
Page 9
purata), Cattleya x intricata (intermedia x leopoldii), and Cattleya x schilleriana (purpurata x intermedia).
Natural Hybrids Can Occur in Nature Where Species Habitats Overlap L. purpurata ‘Cindarosa’ C. leopoldii
Lc. Elegans var. rubra The natural hybrid between L. purpurata and C. leopoldii is referred to as x elegans
when created
by Mother Nature and Lc. Elegans when created by man.
photo credits: L. purpurata and Lc. Elegans by Terry Bottom, C. leopoldii by Keith Davis
A hybrid swarm is a population of individuals that are all hybrids, consisting of primary hybrids between the
parent species, various generations of backcrosses between the
hybrids and parent species and crosses between the primary hybrids. The exchange of genetic material in the
population, referred to as introgression, is primarily from backcrossing and this tends to blur the integrity of
the parent species. Dr. Ruben Sauleda always said that what we call the highly variable species Encyclia
tampensis is really a
hybrid swarm between three species. Carlyle Luer states that genes from species like Encylia phoenicea and
Encyclia plicata are present in Encyclia tampensis, even though the parent species are long gone from the
wilds of the Florida peninsula.
Sometimes new species arise when a species population evolves, converges and/or diverges and becomes
genetically isolated from the parent species from which it arose.
This has happened where populations of orchids evolve in a geologically active areas. When continental
plates migrate or collide, the climatic conditions can also change and
orchid populations adapt to wetter or drier, warmer or cooler, etc. conditions via natural selection and can
result in the evolution of new species. Plate tectonics is one of the reasons for the incredible diversity in the
species of dendrobiums and bulbophyllums found in the southeast Asia, the Malaysian Archipelago and Australia. Most of the angraecums evolved in Madagascar after the island separated from Africa.
New Species Develop as Continental Plates Drift and Collide
Dendrobium goldschmidtianum Angraecum sesquipedale
Pedilonum dendrobiums evolved into bird pollinated species as the Philippine, Asian and Australian plates
migrated.
Moth pollinated angraecums evolved on Madagascar after it separated from the African continent 95 million
years It’s simple for me to tell if an orchid is a species or not, I just look at the plant tag. Imagine what it
would be like if you were looking at two populations of orchids in nature and trying to make a
decision as to whether or not they are distinct
species. You get a new appreciation for the taxonomists that study such things and sometimes
change their minds about what orchid species belongs to which genus and what the proper name
of that species might be.
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November
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1. Prepare for cold
2. Reduce fertilizer
3. Apply extra Potassium and
Magnesium
4. Segregate dormant genera in
bright dry area
5. Repot plants after flowering
6. Groom plants and flower spikes
for holiday display.
Thank you Dr. Motes
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
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Remember we are a SPECIES society and we ask
you only bring orchid species for our silent
auction.
If you want to bid on an orchid, please decide
how much you are willing to pay, bid that
amount and then walk away from the table.
We kindly ask that you not hover around
the table so others may see the what we
are offering.
Coalition for Orchid Species
Nov ember
Page 12
Get your raffle
tickets for a
chance to win
fabulous orchids from
outstanding
orchid venders.
GOT SPECIES?
Get your 2011 COS Newsletters on
the web at
www.cosspecies.com
Special Thanks to Webmasterdesigner Mike Haynes of ISatisfy.com, and Home Page photos by
Greg Allikas,
www.orchidworks.com!
The Florida-Caribbean Regional
Judging Center of the American Orchid Society invites you to bring your orchids
in flower to be judged by our teams of experienced
American Orchid Society Judges, or just come to
learn more about orchids and the process of judging orchids. We meet the THIRD Saturday of
each month at beautiful Fairchild Tropical Botanic
Garden, Corbin Bldg., 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral
Gables, FL Judging begins promptly at 1:00 p.m.
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
Page 13
Please patronize our loyal advertisers!
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Where Quality is as Traditional as the Orchid Itself
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305-245-4570 * [email protected] *www.rforchids.com
For Sale
Benches from $65.00 and up (4 to 5 step)
For info: call Eddy or Gloria Rodriguez
(786) 683-4616 or
(786) 7972054
Susana and Victor Ortiz
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
Page 14
Remember it is important for you to make
sure you check in in order to get credit for attending the meeting. The number of meetings you attend determine when you get to
pick your holiday orchid.
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
November
Page 15
Coalition for Orchid Species
The 2012-2013 Board:
 President Lou Lodyga
 Past President,
Mirta Russis Heineman
 Vice Pres., Michele DiBianchi
 Treasurer: Odalis Navarro
 Secretary: Lori Sell
 Trustees: Carlos Segrera, Erna Maxwell, Katria Whitfield, Cynthia White, Vivian Waddell, Bill Capps, Ketty
Bergouignan, Carmen Segrera, Rolando Armenteros, Melana Davison
 Committees:
 Vivian Waddel: Membership
 Guillermo Salazar: Conservation
 Newsletter Editor : William Capps
Advertising/Reporter : Lori Sell
 Raffle: Carmen Segrera
Photography: open
 AOS Rep: Lynn Corson
Roster: Melana Davison
 Webpage Liaison: Rolando Armenterso
 Cynthia White: Silent Auction
 Refreshments:
 Sunshine: Mirta R. Heineman
Bert Pressman Scholarship: Dr. Rene Izquierdo
Remember we are dedicated to the
culture and conservation of species.
Please bring only species plants for
our silent auction.
Coalit ion for Orchid Species
William Capps
Newsletter Editor
November
Page 16